The cast of Riverdale is really pretty

We knew this. There may be murder mysteries on murder mysteries and secrets on secrets in Riverdale but if there’s one thing we’ve always known for sure, it’s that the entire cast is really f-cking good-looking. The kids of Riverdale are featured in Entertainment Weekly's Fall TV Preview issue proving this undeniable fact.They won EW's cover battle, voted by fans, over This is Us and the Will and Grace reboot. Never underestimate the power of teen fandom. Thanks to my fellow Riverdale stans, we get brand new photos of KJ Apa, Camila Mendes, Lili Reinhart and my inappropriate bae Cole Sprouse to obsess over.

Aside from swooning over my Sprouse twin, my first reaction to the cover was this:

The cover shoot happened in Vancouver on August 27th. They are right in the thick of filming season two where we will supposedly be introduced to a whole new Archie. I've written repeatedly about how, when it comes to his acting, KJ Apa hasn't lived up to his potential. It's a bad sign for a show's leading man when the couple everyone is shipping does not include him. Fans are way more interested in Bughead than they are about whoever Archie is brooding over each week. Will that change in season two? There are only so many slow motion shirtless scenes to keep us interested, you know?

EW has revealed small tidbits about the mystery that the new season will focus on since we now know who killed Jason Blossom. They call it a “scary suspense story akin to Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer.” Whatever. The murder plot was never the most interesting thing about Riverdale. Give me teen drama over criminal intrigue any day. Knowing this, the EW feature spends a lot of time unpacking the appeal of Betty and Jughead. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the creative force behind Riverdale, says love for the pairing has taken on an "elemental life of its own." And Cole Sprouse, who is so cute in these photos I can't handle it, makes a valid point about why a Betty and Jughead hookup seemed like a bad idea.

“We were working against 75 years of comic purism in which the two characters had very little romantic interaction. We were also working against Judghead’s asexuality.”

As much as I think exploring an asexual character on a teen drama would have been innovative and fascinating, Riverdale needs Bughead, especially since it sounds like they are going to lean into the scandal surrounding Veronica’s parents that I don’t give a f-ck about. If there’s anyone I know who is a worse actor than KJ Apa, it’s Mark Consuelos, who singlehandedly ruined Pitch (RIP) and will now bring down Riverdale as Hiram Lodge, the man who sucked the life out of every scene before he was even introduced.

Let’s get back to the pretty pictures. Even through KJ Apa hijacks the cover with his goofy grin, I’m into the entire photo spread. I love the denim and leather styling of the core four. Josie and Cheryl Blossom, the two characters I’m most excited to see next season, are relegated to the inside spread but damn, they look amazing. Don’t ask me how many times I’ve watched the photoshoot’s behind-the-scenes video.

For more hot AF pictures of the cast of Riverdale in EW, click here. To hold you over until October, here’s a new teaser for season two. IS LUKE PERRY STILL ALIVE?